In the end, you will always kneel
by Bard of Chaos
Summary: Written for DaughterofStarlight's story, Domesticity. You should read it first. - What if Clint had said no? Will there be enough pieces of Loki to pick up and put back together in the aftermath?


**I don't own anything. **

**Hello! This was made for DaughterofStarlight's **_**Domesticity. **_**I would suggest reading it first.****This was a writing practice because I wanted to try writing some angst. This is if Clint said no.**

**In the end, you will always kneel.**

"_I won't touch Barton; not until I make him kill you. Slowly; intimately; in every way he knows you fear. And then he'll wake just long enough to see his good work, and when he screams, I'll split his skull. This is my bargain, you mewling quim."_

All eyes were on Clint. The archer shifted in his roost, looking from the subtly pleasing eyes of the demi-god to the blazing shards of flint that belonged to the woman he loved and back again. Clint was not a sentimental man, but he wasn't Natasha. He knew pain. He knew love. He knew what it was like to be unmade. And as much sweet justice as it was to see Loki's mind picked apart by the Chiatauri, a deep human part of him told him that there would soon be nothing left of the trickster if he said no.

He opened his mouth to deliver his answer that would no doubt anger Natasha and Tony when he made a single mistake that he would regret immensely months later.

He hesitated.

And in that hesitation he remembered that smug smirk that Loki had been wearing when he spoke of becoming the ruler of all humans on Earth and how he had taken away his will without a thought for Hawkeye's own wishes. He remembered how his world had been shattered and warped with a demented blue tinted fake only to find out later that as much as he wished that it wasn't true, it hadn't been a dream. He had turned against his comrades and the aftermath was the demolished trust of the other agents. They knew he was being controlled and that he regretted it to the extreme but there was always that wariness in their eyes when they talked to him. And he would never forget the look on the faces of the crying families of the men he had killed.

Seven men. Seven funerals. Seven words.

"I don't want him anywhere near me."

Hawkeye avoided looking at the distraught Thor and didn't respond to Tony's enthusiastic, "Thank you! Some people actually see reason!"

He didn't even glance at Loki and resolutely stared out the windows at the skyline of New York.

And he never saw the brief look of terror in Loki's eyes before those forest green eyes hardened and froze into twin stones of emerald ice.

"_These humans think us immortal. Why don't we test that?"_

The blood was everywhere. Dripping from his wild and roughly hacked apart hair, soaked into the tattered remains of his once royal looking clothes. His flesh was pale white and splattered with bruises that stood out grotesquely on his skin and the cold blue patches that made it obvious just how badly Loki must have been hurt for him to not even try and hide his natural skin tone that he had seemed so ashamed of months ago when they were discussing his fate.

He had fallen from the sky, simply thrown away as if he were trash. It was similar to how he had been found last time. Injured and falling from the sky and causing dramatics everywhere he went.

Except this time he wasn't the one causing the dramatics. He wasn't fulfilling his usual role as the proud villain flaunting his power with monologues and misleading words spun by his silver tongue.

The problems and chaos caused by Loki's short stay in Midguard had settled down a few months ago after repeatedly reassuring the curious public that nothing was wrong and yes, the Avengers had solved everything perfectly so there was no reason to worry.

Soon, even the Avengers themselves had forgotten about Loki. Of course, there was a part of them in the back of their heads that wondered and worried about the god with some people such as Bruce and Thor questioning his fate more loudly then the others but soon even they eased back into the comfort of normal life at the Avengers tower.

He came crashing back into their lives quite literally and ironically right through the window that he had thrown Tony through a year before. They were immediately on the defensive but they quickly realized that the battered red stained creature bleeding out on the floor was not a threat and was on the verge of death if not embracing the eternal sleep at this very moment.

Blood red slashes covered his body and were surrounded by angry red skin diseased with infection and covered in gritty filth. There was a fast growing puddle of crimson and Loki looked like a single touch would send him into oblivion but the most devastating thing about him was revealed to them when Bruce tried to staunch the blood and stop the seemingly never ending flow of blood. The god's eyes flickered open for a moment with the sudden wave of new pain and all of the Avengers cringed inwardly upon the sight that greeted them.

Loki's eyes, once bright with lies and barely contained manic were dead and lifeless. Previously bright green, they were now dull and emotionless, a strange cloudy look covering the irises and muting them to grey like shade. Only one eye opened fully, the other was hindered by a wicked scar stretching from his shoulder blade to his temple, the red line painstakingly curving up his neck and through his right eye creating a split appearance to his face.

"He's still alive."

Bruce's voice was quiet and shocked and the doctor looked halfway between wanting to turn Hulk evidenced by the growing tinge of green in his skin or wanting to lose his lunch.

No one said anything but as they all stared at those dead and sightless eyes and the cruel crimson marks twisting and turning across that pale skin and they can't help but wonder if maybe…

Maybe that wasn't a good thing.

"_In the end, you will always kneel."_


End file.
